Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Wynn dealers appeal ruling over tip sharing

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As expected, Wynn casino dealers have appealed to overturn Nevada Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek’s July ruling declaring that Steve Wynn can legally force dealers to share tips with supervisors.

Attorneys for the dealers filed a petition for judicial review with the Clark County District Court on Tuesday.

“I think his legal conclusions are wrong,” Las Vegas attorney Leon Greenberg said of Tanchek’s ruling. “I don’t think his decision reflects a lot of facts brought to his attention during the course of the proceedings. He simply ignored them.”

In his ruling, Tanchek said the tip pooling policy didn’t violate state law because Wynn’s company didn’t retain the tips and instead redistributed them to employees. Nor did the company, he said, gain any direct financial benefit from the policy.

Tanchek also noted that customers give tips for any number of reasons that may not be directly related to a dealer’s actions.

That’s a misreading of the situation, given that customers in a table game's setting are tipping dealers for their efforts, Greenberg said.

Wynn initiated the tip pooling policy four years ago at Wynn Las Vegas and expanded it to Encore when that property opened in 2008.

Dealers fought the policy in state court but a judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the labor commissioner needed to review the matter first.

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